Maruti Suzuki, India's largest carmaker promoted Ciaz sedan from its regular dealerships to Nexa premium chain in April this year after a three year stint. The model is also set to get a mid-life make over and testing is already on.
While the mules are fully camouflaged and there is no leaked photo of the facelift yet, a leaked image of the new Alivio sedan posted by Autohome China will shed some light. For the uninitiated, Alivio is the name of Ciaz sedan sold Chinese market by Changan Suzuki, a joint-venture between Chang'an Automobile Group and Suzuki.
Being a mid-life facelift, the new Ciaz is expected to get a refreshed face in line with the new Alivio. 2017 Alivio comes with a new single piece front grille that reminds us of the grille design of Audi models. New round shaped fog lamp in a black housing also comes with integrated strip running lamps at lower lip. The front bumper has also been tweaked to adapt new changes.
At the rear, the bumper gets dual-tone finish and that looks sporty. Squint eyes can also spot rearrangements inside tail lamps even though the design remains unchanged. New Maruti Suzuki Ciaz facelift most likely will carry over these changes when it comes to India by 2017 end or in early 2018.
Reports say Maruti Suzuki is also testing new 1.5-litre diesel and petrol engines in new Ciaz test mules. In that case new engine will replace existing 1,373cc petrol and a 1,248cc diesel mills. The petrol unit develops 91bhp at 6,000rpm and 130Nm of torque at 4,000rpm mated to five-speed manual transmission and the diesel unit comes equipped with a small hybrid system which produces 89bhp at 4,000rpm and 200Nm of torque at 1,750rpm.
Source: autohome.com.cn
